.JPG)
Riverbed Technology reveals the results of a survey conducted by the company on the future of networking, called the "Riverbed Future of Networking Global Survey 2017", which explores the impact of both legacy infrastructure and next-generation networks on cloud adoption and digital transformation.
The global survey, which includes responses from 1,000 IT decision makers in nine countries, revealed an incredible level of agreement regarding the perception of how legacy infrastructures are impeding the adoption of cloud and digital strategies. Almost all respondents (97%) agree that legacy network infrastructure will struggle to keep up with the changing demands of cloud and hybrid networks. On the other hand, 91% of respondents say their organization's cloud strategy will only reach its full potential with a next-generation network, and 98% agree that a next-generation network is critical to meeting the needs of their business and end users.
The survey also found an opportunity in the adoption of next-generation technology such as software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) that accelerates cloud adoption and digital transformation. Of the IT decision makers surveyed, 93% plan to migrate to SD-WAN within the next four years.
"The results of this survey reveal the tremendous pressure IT decision makers have to execute their cloud strategies, achieve digital transformation and keep up with the speed of innovation that is the norm in today's hypercompetitive markets," said Jerry M. Kennelly, co. -founder and CEO of Riverbed Technology. "It was almost unanimous that in order to have a successful cloud strategy, organizations must immediately adopt the next-generation software-defined network to support them. Riverbed is dedicated to ensuring that this transformation is successful and that organizations organizations can achieve the operational agility needed to thrive through the use of SD-WAN for cloud networks".
Legacy networks are barriers to cloud and digital success
Today, the performance frustrations experienced by companies are evident, as 58% reported that they experience cloud-related network issues specifically caused by their legacy infrastructure a few times a month or more; and 93% said it affects their business at least once a month. Unfortunately, 85% of these same decision makers say they are still far from reaching the full potential of digital transformation, due in part to their legacy infrastructure.
The modality (SD-WAN) is a point between realization and actual deployment and serves companies from all segments such as finance, manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, communications and media and IT services, and can threaten their competitive positions in their respective markets.
Legacy networks face challenges in supporting cloud-centric applications and workloads and is seen as a true roadblock to cloud success, impacting providing end-to-end visibility into its performance. 69% of respondents stated that legacy network infrastructure and lack of visibility into the cloud are limiting the potential development of their cloud strategy.
The survey also found that decision makers don't like to deal with the limitations of their existing legacy networks, and that they would be willing to sacrifice a lot if it meant their teams wouldn't have to spend as much time on the network to achieve the proper level of performance. In fact, 54% would support a longer commute to work; 53% would take shorter lunch breaks; 51% would handwrite all e-mail correspondence; and 42% would actually stop drinking coffee.
Enterprises are struggling with legacy networks that are not well suited to meet the demands of today's cloud-based applications and workloads. Simply put, legacy networks are dysfunctional for the business.
Factors driving business towards next-generation networks
Decision makers have a high understanding of the relevance of knowing how to address their business and digital challenges. To the extent that organizations are turning to a cloud-centric strategy or are in the process of applying it, there is an important difference between what up-to-date hardware infrastructure performs and what they need to get the benefits of the cloud.
In the survey, 57% of respondents recognize that achieving operational agility is critical to the success of a modern enterprise, and next-generation networks, and the technology to support them, are critical to achieving that goal. Other key factors driving the shift to the next generation of networking technology:
• 56% – successfully carrying out digital transformation initiatives
• 55% – strategic move to cloud and hybrid networks
• 51% – growing demand for mobility
• 51% – increasing customer and end-user expectations
• 45% – support for IoT devices
Next-Gen Cloud Networks and SD-WAN
While there is a current gap in the adoption of next-generation technology to support cloud and digital transformation, this situation is rapidly changing. Of the respondents, 98% agree that within two years SD-WAN technology will be a critical point in next generation networks to manage cloud and hybrid environment. And while only 4% of respondents are currently benefiting from SD-WAN today, within two years, 52% plan to migrate to SD-WAN and 93% within four years.
Global IT decision makers see a variety of benefits from SD-WAN, each ranking is fairly close:
• Increase application performance (44%)
• Network automation and ability to prioritize applications (44%)
• Unified network connectivity (43%)
• Network visibility and monitoring (42%)
• Simplicity / Ease of Management (42%)
• Improved network security (42%)
• Integration with WAN optimization (40%)
• Instant cloud connectivity to AWS and Azure (39%)
• Cost reduction (38%)
According to IT decision makers, upgrading legacy networks and securing next-generation networks with technology such as SD-WAN will have many positive results for companies, including some such as: greater efficiency due to better bandwidth usage (48% ); increased productivity (47%); greater expansion opportunities (46%); revenue increase (45%); greater agility (44%); and improvement in digital initiatives (44%).
For the full Riverbed Future of Networking Global Survey 2017 report, which includes regional and vertical information, visit www.riverbed.com/go/global-application-performance-survey-2017.html.
EN 
PT 
